The Bandwagon: Three More Days and Susan Gable's Workshop

Three More Days and Susan Gable's Workshop

I have another workshop to recommend, Susan Gable's "You Say Tomato, I Say To-Motto." She talked about how each of your characters has a motto he or she lives by, one that affects all the decisions the character makes in the book. For example, she had a heroine whose motto was "Tighten your boot straps and keep going," so when she lost her child, she didn't allow herself to grieve. She had this motto because of her military dad, who wanted her to be tough, so it stemmed from her backstory and spread out into the rest of her life.

She had another heroine whose motto was "Life is short, eat dessert first." This woman was all about creature comforts. The hero in that book had the motto, "Do the right thing," and that was the lesson each had to learn from the other.

She said the character's motto can change in the course of the book, because of course a hero whose motto is, "Leave them wanting more" is going to change by the end of a romance.

I need to go through and see what my characters' mottos are and add them to my collage. It was a very inspirational workshop, gave a lot of ideas for conflict.

Today is a long day, meeting until after 5, at least. Ugh.

2 comments:

Susan Gable said...: I'm so glad you found the workshop helpful!; 8:34 PM
MJFredrick said...: I'm working on a motto for my new heroine as we speak :) Thanks for stopping by!; 9:15 PM